29 COMMENTS

This is the most twisted thing I’ve seen, half of these ‘social networking’ quotes are a load of lies, you have made billy out to be a horrible person. Billy was a normal teenager! He’s not the only one who has ever done silly things like this, he just wanted to fit in. He wasn’t just some teenage vandal, he was a lovely caring person who wanted to explore new things.. Yes granted drugs ruined his life by the end, but there was far more to his life then just getting ‘f*****’ why not show his tweets and statuses about loving his friends? No, that wouldn’t make a good enough story. I genuinely hope that the boys responsible for changing bill get what’s coming to them, but until then, PLEASE for all billy relatives and friends, stop making him sound like drugs was his whole life. We are all upset enough as it is without you people making out he’s a junkie. Step into his friends and family’s shoes and try show some compassion. Heartless people. I am outraged.

Is this for real? What a load of bull, making billy seem like the bad person and twisting words, I hardly knew him but I knew him enough to know he wasn’t like that! This is so disrespectful and should be taken off.

This is dusguisting. This article should be taken down. As you think they were tweeting about “Drugs”, they were not. They were tweeting about FUDGE. This article is an insult to the Robson family. Take this down at once!

This article is absolutely disgusting. Based entirely on speculations drawn from tweets. Topped off by the person posing as a “journalist” not even having the testicular fortitude to put their own name to their work and posting it up as guest…. You people make me sick, and with no basis to your claims, which is actually stated in the article (see the part about an autopsy not being carried out yet) what you have here is nothing but pure slander. If you were a mainstream publication like the Sun you would have the rest of the press corp screaming for your editor’s head. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

This is absolutely disgusting, of course Billy tweeted about his nights out and having a great time with his mate’s like all guys our age do. Cannot believe how much if a bad light this has put him in but we all know ourselves what you were really like Billy. Miss you man

I hope you know that you’ve got your story wrong and that when Billy said “omg he bought five for a pound” he meant his favourite sweet, which was a fudge, he was not talking about drugs at this point. An apology to his parents would be the least you could do, and also had you have actually done any research into this, you would have found that you cannot buy 5 of what he was taking for a pound. this has made myself and a lot of other people who knew him very upset and just goes to show that what people say about you is true, you guys will do anything just to get a story, well I hope your flippin happy with all the grief you’ve caused, thank you for your time

This is utterly disrespectful towards Billy and his family and friends. The tweets used have been twisted to make Billy look bad. You should really remove this article immediately, it’s breaking the rules of journalism.

I realise that this story has caused considerable upset among Billy’s friends. That is regrettable and certainly not something we would ever set out to achieve.

However, part of the duty of all journalists is to report – as accurately and fairly as we can – matters of public interest.

It is a tragic fact that scores of young Scots die every year as a result of drug use and those deaths, year after year, are a matter of enormous public interest. It is vitally important that young people and their parents are not shielded from this fact.

Whatever subsequent investigations show, there are strong reasons to suspect that drugs were involved in this case. (We were careful to refer to a “suspected drugs overdose” and not state drugs were involved as a matter of fact.)

There is no doubt that Billy made a clear reference to getting intoxicated just hours before he died. Elsewhere on his public Twitter feed there is overwhelming, and often explicit, reference to drug use. The vast majority of this material was not used in the article.

In my opinion, we would be failing in our duty if we did not bring matters like these to the public’s attention. Attitudes towards drugs, and awareness of the potential dangers of drugs, are vital to saving lives.

There is no “nice” way to report such circumstances and there is no “good” time to do it.

To repeat, it was never our intention to upset anyone or blacken Billy’s reputation. The story included loving tributes from his father and brother and I do not think many people would jump to harsh conclusions about what kind of a person he was.

Trying to justify the way you’ve twisted his words is doing you no favours, it’s not just billy’s reputation you’ve blackened with your lies, it’s your own. Writing and publishing incorrect information then attempting to blame it on ‘your duty’ is a disgrace to journalism and you should be ashamed. Throwing in a few quotes from family members at the end doesn’t make it ok, you’re wrong too have this on your site and you should accept that and take appropriate actions.

You shouldn’t blame the unnecessary actions that you have taken on “your duty”. That is not an excuse and this clearly does not reflect on you or your website very well. You personally should be ashamed of the amount of hurt and anger that you have caused to his friends and family. As if they don’t already have enough to deal with, without you loaded more onto them. I think you should take all of this into consideration and show a little bit of respect to the the others who have been affected about this, instead of attempting to get a good story out of this which has clearly failed. You need to take action fast before this turns out horribly wrong for you.

Yes it is tragic that this young life has come to this, But if you were to look through the whole of all his friends facebook’s you will find numerous, picture’s dating back years of partying and drug misuse, it was something that happens very regular among them in newtown every weekend, in houses that the parents are fully aware of, the underage drinking ect, My heart go’s out to his family, but it was going to happen to one of them at some point, its a crying shame it was him, that it happened too,

this is disgusting, how can you write something like that once the poor boy died, and lie through all of it, I didn’t know billy well, but i spoke to him a couple of times, and i know he was definetly not a drug addict, if you think fudge is a drug then you must have something wrong with you, yeah he may post on twitter about him going out drinking or having a laugh with his friends, but so what, thats what teenagers do, build a bridge and get over it, i suggest you take it down, because his family and friends are upset enough as it is, you wouldn’t like to loose your son or brother or anyone, so get a grip of your lives, all you care about is your stupid headlines, which are all just a bag full of lies half of the times, get your act together and sort this rubbish out, he was a very caring boy, with a great sense of humour, and everyone loved him, so take this down, because your going to get a lot of haters if you don’t.

Sorry.. but what idiot takes 9 benzos it clearly says on the packet “Not for human consumption see a doctor if swallowed” your only meant to take one or two. this is nobodys fault but his own its not the drugs fault its not the dealers fault its his fault.. i know ill get hate for this but its true and you all know it. Stick to weed, drink and fags might get on abit better.

You claimed in your reply “part of the duty of all journalists is to report – as accurately and fairly as we can – matters of public interest”. Forgive me for being somewhat frank, but I’m fairly certain to produce an accurate article, as you claim this to be, you are required not to make assumptions and the like. As I’m sure you have been made so frequently aware… you implied that certain tweets between Billy and another were about drugs when in actuality they were about fudge sweets. I’m also led to believe that you quoted him somewhat deceptively, making your readers believe he ‘can’t think about giving it up’ referencing his supposed drug-addled lifestyle when he was actually quoting song lyrics.

This alone screams to me that you (i shall say you as I am not sure who wrote this article and as you are the managing editor, I imagine had some input or at least proof-read it and allowed it to be posted) are biased and have a clouded vision towards teenagers. I have to say, I imagine you to be one of those who completely dismisses our generations as useless junkies and the like and your quick conclusion-jumping confirms this.

The friends of Billy that got involved and devised comments and wall posts to your facebook page did not claim that drugs were not in any way related to this event as you claimed they did in your comment. They were merely pointing out that words had been severely twisted which surely even you can’t deny.

If you really wish to succeed in writing a truthful and valid article that brings attention to the matter of drug abuse in teenagers to your readers (as you say to justify this atrocious article) then even I, someone with no english qualifications above standard grade thus far, can see that it could be done in ways that are subtle, respectful and cause no upset or hurt.

Perhaps I can help… this can be done by sticking to the following rules: – Don’t write utter lies and slander. – Stick to cold, hard facts. – Do not single the deceased out or make them appear at fault. – Do your research. – Listen to feedback. – l2english.

also, people die and are dying all over the world at any given moment in time, why should this boy get any sympathy for ODing on an illegal substance? (there’s a reason it’s illegal you know) there are people out there who are far more deserving of the sympathy than him.

I’m sorry but what ever happened to the concept of free speech. You can publish whatever you want, whether people like it or not or agree with it is irrelevant. the simple fact is this article contains no mis-quotes or ‘lies’. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and what your opinion of billy is can be anything. It is common knowlege Billy was involved with drugs along with others and was quite public about the fact. He didn’t know me but i knew of him and what he did ages ago. And i apologise but it was bound to happen to one of them. So don’t try and make out that billy was so innocent and never did anything wrong because that in it’s self is lying which was exactly what you were protesting about. Bit hypocritical?

If one person reads this EEN article, and rejects drug use, reporting the facts, distressing as it may be, is justifiable. The EEN are right to publish the truth, and not gloss over this drugs related death.

All everyone wants is an apology directed at Billy Robson. We want you to recognise that Billy was not a drug-bender and that some of his tweets were about fudge sweets, not drugs of any sort. I appreciate you have to twist a tale slightly to get readers interested, but this was beyond a joke. Thank you for your time, a dignified response would be mildly appreciated.

This is typical Kelso response. Somebody dies or gets injured through no fault but their own and everybody jumps on the reporter saying THEY’RE the asshole. Who cares if they’re reporting the story? If someone decides to indulge, it doesn’t matter if they’re nice to you in person, they made bad decisions and that was their downfall. Don’t justify them by saying they were nice to you, people make their own mistakes. Drugs f*** s*** up weather the user means it or not. Oh they died, so god forbid we speak ill of the dead… Grow up. Just because they’re dead doesn’t mean they were saints.

Having read all these posts I would comment as follows. For those who are giving the newspaper a hard time…………you are wrong. You are allowing your emotions to cloud the issue, no one suggested he was a bad lad but reported that it is likely he died from being involved in drug-taking, which is pretty factual. Previous respondent got it bang on, if it prevents ONE youngster from ingesting this garbage then it is worth it. As for the “fudge sweets” issue, you must be incredibly naieve to think that anyone is going to believe that nonsense, “bought 5 fudges for a pound” ??? seriously, any young , hip and cool kid would be laughed out of school by his peers for talking about uncool sweeties. Death doesn t grant saint-ship the last post says, absolutely correct. He made an error the day he started taking non prescription drugs, simple as. I hope he is at peace.

I’m not going to sugarcoat t coz the young lad died. There’s enough information out there about drugs and the effect they have on people so it was his own fault. He was 16 not 5. He should have knew better. What sort of friend or even normal human being such as Arron Foord did would come on a try defend the things about drug taking and yet say ”also had you have actually done any research into this, you would have found that you cannot buy 5 of what he was taking for a pound”? That has got to be one of the dumbest comments ever. Tries to defend drug taking by admitting that Billy was taking something. You can pick up any drug you want in Newtown. I do know this after living there all my life. I don’t care what numpties have to say on the matter. He should never have done the drugs, people have a right to inform others and they have the right to show drug use for what it is…A killer. I won’t be one of those people that will give the greatest of sympathy for someone that dies. I’ll save that for the family that lost a young boy through HIS AND HIS FRIENDS selfish actions.

No one is going to get laughed out of school for eating fudges.Your argument is so flawed because you don’t understand the humour of the younger generation today. Also, no one is claiming this lad never done drugs of any kind or that they didn’t kill or him or defending him or anything. They’re merely stating that he was misquoted horrendously regarding the fudge sweets and the lyrics. It’s frustrating at how oblivious to the actual argument some of these comments are.